Holiday Bowl

On Dec. 5, Richard Circuit became the 30th person inducted into the Holiday Bowl Hall of Fame. Players and coaches most often get that honor, but Circuit is an attorney. He has been working behind the scenes for more than 34 years to make the Holiday Bowl and its sister Poinsettia Bowl a success each December.

These are far more than football games. They are “experiences,” including the battle of the bands, the balloon parade, ambitious half-time shows and visitor receptions.

The 2012 San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl was Dec. 20. The Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl pits UCLA against Baylor on Thursday. Circuit, who chairs the San Diego Bowl Game Association’s National Strategy Committee and negotiates many of its contracts, shares his perspective.

Q: Why was the Holiday Bowl created?

A: To showcase not only excellent collegiate football but also to promote San Diego and encourage visitors to come here at this time of year when our hotels don’t have many bookings.

Q: Why have two bowl games?

A: Other cities have two bowl games — Phoenix and New Orleans, for example — so we thought, why can’t San Diego? When the NCAA approved the Poinsettia Bowl, I was one of the skeptics. I thought a second game during the holiday period might be too much for our volunteers and the staff. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at its success.

Q: What is your greatest challenge?

A: The constant change we’ve seen in the last five to six years, the conference realignment, coordinating the agreements in obtaining the teams. … We have to compete with the other bowls. When I started, there were 14 bowls. Now there are 35.

Historically, coaches wanted to bring their teams to a beautiful destination as a reward. So in those early years, we were very successful. We had Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan. Now, it’s all about money. There’s no loyalty or fidelity to long-term relationships. We’ll pay both Holiday Bowl teams about $2.5 million (which comes from ticket sales, TV rights and sponsorships). We give gifts to players of up to $550 in value per team member. For the Poinsettia Bowl, the payment will be about $500,000 to $750,000 to each team. The conference also gets a commission.

Q: What is one major crisis you faced?

A: The rains that flooded the football field two years ago less than 24 hours before the Poinsettia Bowl. The teams were already in town. (The game went on after extraordinary steps to siphon off the water and dry out the field.)

Q: Beginning in 2014, there will be a Bowl Championship Series (BCS) playoff among top teams. Any chance the Holiday Bowl will be included?

A: It’s not likely. They have not yet offered the RFP (request for proposal) for the six bowls that will be part of a playoff. The payout is currently $17 million per team. That would mean higher ticket prices and higher sponsorship costs. It would take a herculean effort by all the parties involved to do it, but we’ll certainly look at it.

Q: Aside from your staff of eight, how many people organize San Diego’s two bowl games?

A: We have 32 on our board of directors, 120 committee members (they’re key people known as Redcoats) and 1,000 other volunteers. They greet the teams upon arrival and host the hospitality rooms. They are the people who make this happen.

Q: What is the economic impact of the games on San Diego?

A: Last year it was $26.1 million. In 2010, it was $30.2 million. That’s money spent in hotels, restaurants, bars and throughout our tourism industry.

Q: Have you ever lost money on a game?

A: In the history of the Holiday Bowl, there has only been one negative year, when Illinois played Hawaii in 1992.

Q: What do you remember about Donny and Marie Osmond at the first Holiday Bowl?

A: They sang the national anthem. In the middle of the game, Marie wanted to go shopping so we left the stadium in the third quarter to go to the mall in Mission Valley. I missed the end of the game, but it was my job to be with them until they left town.

Q: What was your most memorable bowl?

A: When I was (Holiday Bowl) president in 1994, I was on the field with Wayne Gretzky to do the coin toss when a Navy Leap Frog team parachuted into the stadium. One man’s second chute didn’t open. He hit the ground about 50 feet from me. I went to Sharp Hospital to visit him after the game. His fellow Leap Frogs were there and told me, “This is our job.” He became a quadriplegic.

Q: What was your favorite bowl game? Why?

A: The 1980 Holiday Bowl with Brigham Young University playing Southern Methodist. BYU came from behind in the last four minutes and scored 25 points to win. I hosted the BYU team for that game. Jim McMahon later sent me a photo of him throwing the final “miracle touchdown” pass and said “thank you for all you did.”